Two marae along a dangerous stretch of State Highway 1 are calling for the return of the 80km/h speed limit after a crash that killed a motorcyclist on Tuesday.
Wehi Wehi Marae and Tūkorehe Marae both sit on SH1 south of Levin, between Ōhau and Manakau.
Emergency services were called to a fatal two-vehicle crash near Manakau on Tuesday.
The road was closed for nearly four hours with Tūkorehe Marae opening its doors and providing water to waiting drivers.
Changes to the speed limit on the stretch of highway came into effect on July 1, 2025, increasing from 80km/h to 100km/h.
Alicia Miratana, a descendent of Ngāti Wehiwehi and Manakau resident, she said Ngāti Wehiwehi fought two decades ago to have the double lanes outside the marae removed. They were replaced with traffic islands but Miratana said speed was still the issue.
“That stretch of road between Manakau, Kuku, Ōhau right up to Levin has been acknowledged that it is one of the most dangerous parts of State Highway 1 throughout New Zealand. There have been so many accidents, so many casualties along that stretch of road.”
Wehi Wehi Marae sat right beside the highway and Miratama said it had a big impact on how the marae operated.
“We have our kaumātua that no longer walk to the marae it is just too unsafe for them, we don’t allow our tamariki to walk home from the marae it is not for them. But the biggest fear we have for Ngāti Wehiwehi is that we have a Kōhanga Reo on our marae.”
The road was just too unpredictable to have tamariki walking along it, she said. It also caused worry when the marae hosted any kind of hui.
“Our pae taumata are constantly running out there, that is one of our tikanga to go and make sure that our manuhiri that are standing at the waharoa are safe. But is it really safe?
“It’s gotten to the point now that we’ve had to seriously think about how do we look after our manuhiri, they’re contending with cars that are going at 100km/h on the road and we have to make sure that their safety comes first before our karanga has even gone out.”
Three kilometres up the road from Wehi Wehi was Tūkorehe Marae.
Ngāti Tukorehe Tribal Committee chairperson Pikitia Heke said pleas to keep the stretch of highway at the 80km/h speed limit had “fallen on deaf ears”.
At the beginning of June, descendants of Tūkorehe and Wehi Wehi Marae protested the speed increase with what Heke called a “katiakitanga demonstration”.
“When the speed limit went down to 80 we didn’t have any fatalities on our road. There wasn’t any significant crashes on our road and then — as soon as it went up — there’s been two crashes today that I know of,” Heke said.
Heke said she drove past the aftermath of one crash shortly before hearing of a second that closed the road on Tuesday.
When there was a crash and the traffic backed up, they were lucky the marae was right there and they could open up the toilets and provide water to stuck motorists, she said.
“We can’t offer much but we try.”
She said the iwi had approached local ministers and MPs about reducing the speed limit but to no avail.
“It’s dangerous. There’s a lot of sharp turns, over-bridges. When you go over the over-bridges in both Kuku and in Manakau you can’t see because they’re on hills and they’re turning at the same time. So there’s no real clear vision. Unless you know where you’re going — or know the road — it’s unsafe really.”
Miratana said this was not the first time people living along that stretch of highway had helped out drivers in trouble.
“I live pretty much in the danger zone on State Highway 1 and, for many years now, me and my family and all my extended family have been the ones to go over to make sure they are all right.”
Adding to the danger was the fact the land around SH1 south of Levin included a lot of agricultural land.
“So you’ve also got things tractors that come out of that road onto State Highway 1, you have trucks that come out onto State Highway 1. How many deaths does this Government want? If they do not listen to us there are going to be more accidents, more deaths on this road if they don’t reduce the speed,” Miratana said.
The iwi were worried it was only a matter of time before there was another crash, she said.
RNZ approached the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) for comment.
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